Birmingham – Tilt Bar

I’ve pretty much finished visiting all the Good Beer Guide pubs in central Birmingham, so I felt that it was time to work through the craft beer bars in the city as well. Tilt is a little tucked away, although that’s perhaps partly down to all the roadworks which made getting to it harder than I had anticipated. They’ve put helpful signage though on the main street so that I (and others….) could find it, which was much appreciated.

It wasn’t very busy, but I liked the informal feel to the arrangement.

I thought I had taken better photos of these than I actually had, but clicking on the images makes them larger and just about readable. I stayed for a little while, and the beer menu on the right was the one that replaced the heavily crossed out one. It seems there is a regularly rotating choice of beers and there were extra options in the beer fridges as well.

I would comment that the beer list is a little difficult to tie into beers on Untappd, and there were a couple of mistakes on there. That makes no difference to me as I had the information that I needed, but it might mean that I thought that I was drinking a slightly different version of a brewery’s beer to the one they served me, which will mean my reviews on Untappd might be a little wrong. But I can’t imagine that anyone much cares….. (and I won’t tell Nathan as he will tut at my lack of accuracy).

Anyway, my first beer was a collab between S43 Brewery and Brew York, which I think is the Pumpkin Pumpkin Dark Side. This was exquisite and it felt a little like Christmas with the cinnamon and nutmeg, just like a decadent drink from Starbucks. Apparently there is pumpkin in there (a hint with the beer name) but I can’t remember what pumpkin tastes like, so I took their word for that. The second beer was from Maltgarden, which immediately made me miss Poland, who I always try to get beers from when I see them. This one was Escape With Me, another stout which again had a cinnamon flavour, but also coffee, nuts and maple syrup, a second decadent drink.

My third drink was the Virtual Reality – Mocha Coconut and Vanilla Macaroons, which disappointed me as I struggled to pull any flavour out of that at all. I did partly wonder whether I had the right beer, but a few people noted the subtle flavours with this one and so perhaps they were just too subtle for me. I usually like Amundsen Brewery beers, but I thought that this was a little average. But, I can’t win them all.

And they had a choice of crisps from Pipers, another positive point…… Although I didn’t have one, the bar is also proud of their coffees and I suspect that they’re rather good as well. Yet one more good thing, they’ve made the effort to put some history of the building on their web-site, it annoys me when historic pubs make no reference anywhere to their heritage. More substantial food isn’t served here (although I’d be happy with lots of crisps) but customers can bring their own food in and the bar’s web-site offers some recommendations.

The staff were conversational and welcoming, this was always an inviting place to be. The staff were knowledgeable about beer and I felt that they made an effort to engage with every customer. In some ways, this bar seems very understated when I visited, given that it was quiet and I felt it deserved to be busy. I’d say that this is one of those bars which is on-trend, but not through a formulaic design, but by offering elements that are exciting and innovative. There were numerous pinball tables (or whatever they’re called) which added something different as well, I like additional quirky bits like that.

Anyway, I thought that this really was a delightful little place which deserves more attention given the care that they’ve taken with the choice of beers. Friendly staff, a clean environment, excellent beer and nothing for me to complain about. Reviews on-line are nearly universally positive, so all very lovely.